Acute injuries to coral reef ecosystems can take many forms, from vessel groundings and anchor drag to destructive fishing techniques and oil or chemical spills. The capacity to address these injuries in some cases is limited by legislative authorities, access to technical assistance and training, and scientific understanding.

The U.S. Coral Reef Task Force (Task Force) called for the formation of a working group on Tools for Responding to Major Injury Events at 16th Meeting in 2006 in St. Thomas, USVI. The working group identifies and shares information on tools and training to help prevent, respond to, assess, and mitigate major injury events in coral reef ecosystems. These tools could address unplanned (e.g., vessel grounding or hurricane damage) as well as unplanned but permitted (e.g., dredging or aquaculture) injury events.

Please contact coralreefweb@noaa.gov if you are looking for additional information about inactive working groups.